Abou Abdel Nasser Hajj Deeb in his home, holding up a picture of one of his sons who died in an act of jihad. / Mona Alami

by Mona Alami, Special for USA TODAY

by Mona Alami, Special for USA TODAY

TRIPOLI, Lebanon - In early August, a Swedish national of Lebanese origin blew himself up in a suicide bombing at a military barracks in Kalaat al-Hosn in the Syrian province of Homs.

While it may have seemed just another footnote in the increasingly violent Syrian civil war, the bombing was significant for one reason: It was the first time a Lebanese carried out a suicide bombing in Syria since the conflict began there in 2011.

Lebanon, which has thus far stayed out of the conflagration on its borders, is being pulled in. And fathers and mothers who remember the vicious street battles that turned Lebanon into a bloody war zone in 15 years of war ending in 1990 know what is in store if their country takes sides.

Here in Lebanon's second-largest city, Sunnis, Shiites, Alawites and Christians have lived together for centuries. Known for café sweets, ubiquitous arguileh water pipes and beautiful architecture from the ancient empires that once ruled here, Tripoli is now on edge.

It's not uncommon to find Sunni Muslims, who oppose the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad, living on one side of the street and Alawite Muslims, the sect to which Assad belongs, living on the other.

The two have been at each others' throats recently. Last month, car bombs killed 45 people during Friday prayers. Gunbattles are not infrequent. Lebanese men are now heeding the call to jihad in Syria, and it worries many here, especially Abou Abdel Nasser Hajj Deeb, whose grandson, Moatassem al-Hassan, was the suicide bomber in Homs.

Al-Hassan is just one of several of Hajj Deeb's progeny who are succumbing to radicalization as Lebanese Sunnis are increasingly identifying with their brethren who largely make up the rebellion against Assad.

One of Hajj Deeb's sons, Saddam, blew himself up in a suicide bombing in Tripoli. Last year, his nephew Malek, and his grandson Abdel-Hakim Ibrahim, were killed in an ambush in Tal Kalakh, Syria, where they were attempting to join Syrian rebel groups.

"My grandson and nephew, who were trained in first aid, wanted to help injured Syrians," Hajj Deeb says. "They were deeply troubled by the Syria war and the Assad regime's blind oppression."

The two young men crossed the border without informing their families. "We were shocked to hear of their deaths," he says.

Hajj Deeb talks while sitting on a small carpet on his run-down balcony, a copy of the Quran in his pocket. The road to the house, in one of Tripoli's most impoverished areas, is dotted with pictures of his dead grandsons and nephews, deaths that have earned him the name "father of jihad."

Hajj Deeb grabs hold of his Quran. "The death of my two grandsons who lived in Sweden was another blow," he says.

According to Hajj Deeb's son, Abdel Nasser, al-Hassan and Hassan el Hassan, both in their 20s, were living in Sweden but smuggled themselves into Syria and began training with Islamic groups in the flashpoint region of Homs.

"Their father took their passports away from them, but they went to the police and claimed they were lost and managed to get another copy before crossing into Syria from Lebanon," Abdel Nasser says.

The two young men were killed in a military operation carried out by Jund al-Sham, a radical Islamic group with links to al-Qaeda.

The Deeb family's involvement in jihadism seems to have started with the indoctrination of Saddam to radical ideas. Saddam, named after Iraq's former president, was arrested in Damascus, Syria, on charges of smuggling fighters into Iraq. His imprisonment among hard-core jihadists only fueled his ideology, Hajj Deeb says.

In 2007, he blew himself up near a group of security forces during clashes that were taking place in Tripoli, which led to a brief war in the summer of 2007 between terror group Fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese army.

"It is believed Saddam was manipulated like many others by Syrian intelligence services," says Tripoli-based Salafist Sheikh Nabil Rahim. Salafists believe in a strict interpretation of the Quran, and adhere to the same beliefs of the Wahhabist sect of Osama bin Laden.

Saddam's brother Khaled was arrested a few years ago at the Beirut airport on suspicion of terror activity, as he was carrying military night goggles, but was later released. Another brother, Othman, has been in prison for seven years for links with Fatah al-Islam. But Hajj Deeb denies Othman was involved with the group.

"He was arrested because he was Saddam's brother," he says.

Youssef, one of Hajj Deeb's youngest sons, was arrested in 2006 in connection with a terrorist plot to blow up two trains in Germany. He was sentenced in 2008 to life in prison. Hajj Deeb denies the accusation.

"He was arrested due to a tip-off from Lebanese agencies that had it out for him," he says.

Hajj Deeb claims the radicalization of his other sons happened because the Lebanese military did not accept them.

"It is the rejection of the other sons from army services that might have triggered their resentment against the Lebanese authorities," he says. "My sons were rejected because of the country's unjust patronage system. I did not have enough money or relations to get them all a job in the army or police, and my sons resented the Lebanese state for that."

"We live in a country where there is no equality. All my sons were educated; some were lawyers, engineers or holders of master's degrees and were unable to find jobs in their own country. So they experienced a strong feeling of injustice," he said.

This feeling was reinforced by the images of the Syrian war, Hajj Deeb says.

"Women and children are being slaughtered while we watch. People cannot stay silent when faced with injustice," he said.

But rather than act as a warning to young men, the actions of suicide bomber Moatassem al-Hassan has emboldened them, Salafist Sheikh Abou Ahmad says.

"I have been hearing that more of the Tripoli youth are willing to go fight in Syria, and more find radical ideas appealing," he says.